GenealogyBank's Newspaper Archives Document Every Day of Your Ancestors' Lives

Newspapers are likely the only surviving documentation of the daily lives of your ancestors. Daily newspapers
covered the news, reported on events, and recorded the births, marriages and deaths of the people in their
community and beyond. Rich or poor, each of us makes it into the newspaper at least once—but the papers
themselves record the daily pace of life unfolding around us.

GenealogyBank is the largest and fastest growing newspaper archive for family history research.

Featuring over 6,500 newspapers and a powerful search engine,
no other online resource provides as much family history information. Search GenealogyBank now and begin discovering the many
genealogical treasures provided by newspapers.

GenealogyBank currently has 215 million newspaper obituaries and death records
covering over 320 years from over 6,500 newspapers. New obituary records
are added daily.

Historical Obituaries Search Tips

Use our historical obituaries search to find obituaries printed
from 1704–1999
in the newspaper archives. Our historical obituaries collection contains
both recent and old obituaries published in U.S. newspapers.

If you are searching for a deceased relative who passed after
1999, use our Recent Obituaries search
instead. This online collection contains only newer obituaries printed in U.S.
newspapers from 1704–1999.

Broad Obituary Search

The name listed on the obituary may not be the name that you are
familiar with. Try searching for obituaries with just your ancestor’s surname
and a date range.

When searching for a deceased married woman, start by using the
married surname in your query. You can also try another search using her maiden
name or previous married name(s) if she was married more than once.

Do not use the date of death in your search. Obituaries are often
published days or even weeks after a person’s death. If the relative you are
looking for died in the last few months of a year, be sure to include the
following year in the date range in order to cast a wider net to find the
obituary. Obituaries will often be published in the newspaper over a period of
several days.

Narrow Your Obituary Search

Try narrowing your obituary search by entering the first name of another
family member such as a spouse, parent or child. In the 19th Century
it was common for a married woman to be referred to as "wife of John Smith"
without mentioning her first name.

Find Your Ancestor’s Date of Death

Try searching the Social Security Death Index to find your
ancestor’s exact date of death before searching for their obituary in the
newspaper archives. Once you know your ancestor’s date of death try using a
date range of a year or two after they died, in order to find their obituary
and locate any memorial articles that may have run in the newspaper about their
passing.

Visit the Blog

Need additional help tracing your family tree? Visit our genealogy blog for more
search tips that will help you do better family history research with
GenealogyBank.

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